Society

Official goes online to confess, accuse

By He Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-16 08:10

SHANGHAI - A former official in East China's Anhui province has become famous for turning to his micro blog to confess to offering bribes and to accuse other officials of corruption, although the reactions to the way he choose to distribute his message have been mixed.

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Zhou Wenbin, a clerk with Lixin land resources bureau of Bozhou city in Anhui, started writing the confession and accusations online on Wednesday under the username "Zhou Wenbin 2010". His postings have since attracted a steadily enlarging group of followers.

Throughout 10 messages, Zhou gave a detailed account of his journey to the Bozhou Commission for Discipline Inspection to report the corruption charges. The first of them read, "I'm now on a bus to make the accusations and there is a two-hour drive to my destination."

The Hefei Evening News reported that Zhou once submitted a 7,000-character complaint letter to discipline authorities at various levels, accusing the bureau leaders he worked under of corruption. He never received a reply.

In making his online accusations, he wanted to draw attention to official corruption, according to the report.

An original copy of Zhou's complaint letter posted on sdnews.com.cn on Friday suggested that Zhou had accused local officials of accepting bribes.

The letter gave the specific amount of money accepted by each official.

Zhu Chenglin, an official with the discipline commission of Bozhou, confirmed on Friday that Zhou had come to the commission to make accusations of corruption.

Zhu said an investigative team has been sent to oversee the case but refused to say how many officials have been accused.

Zhou, in his latest message - posted at 10:51 am on Friday - expressed his gratitude to netizens for their support of his actions.

Li Xuecheng, a discipline inspection officer within the land resource bureau, said Zhou was removed from a leadership position in 2010 because "he failed to pass routine examinations", and has since worked as a clerk.

By 4 pm on Friday, more than 4,200 Internet users were following Zhou's micro blog. Their responses ran the gamut from expressing admiration to criticizing him.

A netizen named "anhuitashaxing" called him " a brave warrior". But another netizen, "EricCheng719", said Zhou had brought shame to Anhui.

Xie Youping, a professor with the School of Law at Shanghai-based Fudan University, said Zhou has the right to tell discipline authorities about official crimes he believes are occurring.

Li Luxiang contributed to this story.